This disclosure is generally directed to curable phase change inks, methods of producing custom colors with the curable phase change inks, and use of the inks in methods for forming images, such as their use in ink jet printing. More particularly, this disclosure is directed to a set of phase change inks, in which each ink of the ink set utilizes the same dispersant among the different colors of the ink set and also contains the same amount of the dispersant, such that the different color phase change inks can be readily mixed together to form custom colors while avoiding incompatibilities between the inks, resulting in custom colors and an expanded color gamut.
The ability to provide custom color inks for printing needs is highly desirable. Highlight colors and spot colors are an important requirement for those with printing needs. The formation of custom colors with liquid dye-based inks to achieve a desired color is generally readily done, but in the case of pigmented inks, the situation is more complex due to the use of dispersants with the pigments, and the potential for interactions between dissimilar pigments and dispersants/additives across the colored inks (for example, C (cyan), Y (yellow), M (magenta), and K (black)) of the ink set.
Access to custom colors or expanded color gamut inks is particularly important in applications requiring low pile height, which prohibits multi-pass printing to achieve colors outside of the CYMK colors. Also, a customer that desires to formulate many custom colors for digital printing typically desires low inventory and small batch sizes of a custom color for short printing runs. This disclosure provides readily mixable pigmented inks or pigment concentrates, permitting ready custom color formation in pigmented phase change inks.